On a recent evening, Tony Ballard gathered his students around a chess board. They’d been playing practice matches for about an hour, and Ballard saw some mistakes he wanted to correct quickly.
He instructed the students to consider how they develop their pieces — the moves the knights, bishops and rooks make after the pawns are in play.
Like many things at the Masters and Mentors program, there’s an important life lesson in game strategy.
Ballard asked the kids to think of themselves as the board’s king.
“Every one of these pieces are part of your support system,” Ballard said. “So if I'm playing red, and I'm the king, I got my mom or my wife on my team. I got my brother, my sisters and my mentors on my team. They need to be out here on the battlefield with you to help you succeed in life.”
Masters and Mentors recently won $45,000 in funding through the United Way’s Impact on the Plains event. The program began in 2024 using a model Ballard had seen work in the Kansas Department of Corrections. In addition to chess lessons, Ballard added a cognitive behavioral curriculum to teach life skills like anger management, communication and eye contact.
For Ballard, chess is the perfect way to demonstrate those lessons. It’s something he learned firsthand after being incarcerated for 22 years. Ballard said the game was a key component in helping him make better life choices.
“Chess is a game that requires you to think,” he said. “It requires you to plan, to strategize and to have patience. When I bring it to the kids, I want to engage them with fun, so that they can learn the game.”
The program is open to any child aged 12 to 17 who is interested in chess. It’s focused on helping at-risk youth and those involved in the court system.
“They are accustomed to seeing traumatic situations that weigh on their psyche, weigh on their mental health, and then they end up modeling that same type of behavior,” Ballard said.
More than 150 kids have participated in the program, with 54 attending this year. Many are referrals from the justice system, Ballard said. He’s also working on establishing a partnership with the Wichita school district to reach students at Sowers and Gateway Alternative schools.
Titus Hoggatt was one of the early students at Masters and Mentors, and then went on to win a chess state championship. He now serves as the program’s chess coach.
“In chess you have to think about your next move, and you have to think about what's going on,” Hoggatt said. “And so that really helped me think about the things I was doing in real life, whether it was studying or smart decisions I was making.”
Hoggatt’s goal is to make that same connection for the kids. Sometimes, beginning students can be intimidated by the game. He starts out with how the basic pieces move and encourages them as they learn. When they lose, Hoggatt tells them losing is just another part of life.
“You will lose more than you'll win,” Hoggatt said. “And that's okay, because you can really learn from your mistakes when you lose, and that's important in chess.”
During the class, Hoggatt sits across from 15-year-old Gavin Hannah for a practice game. Hannah plays with a lot of energy, narrating his thought process behind each move. Ballard occasionally looks over the pair’s shoulders and reminds Hannah to take a full breath before he moves.
Hannah said he started out as a beginner player at Masters and Mentors, and now his goal is to win a tournament. The program has taught him a lot, he said.
“If you're playing chess, and you're not thinking about it, people can take your move,” Hannah said. “But if you're not thinking about real life, they could also take your move. So, you got to think before you do.”
At the other end of the table, 15-year-old Cadence Young has the opposite playing style. She moves her pieces in silence, with a lot going on in her mind.
“I'm just thinking which piece I want to move it, where I want to move it, and what'll happen if I move it there,” Young said.
Young said she’s been playing the game for a while, but it’s her first time at Masters and Mentors. She wants to get better at developing her pieces for defense and offense. With a determined smile, Young said she’s learned a lot on her first night about how chess relates to life.
“Life is like kind of a battle, and you're just trying to win,” Young said. “And you have people to help you.”
After instructing his students, Ballard intently watches their games from a few feet away. He seems proud of their progress. The key for them to make better choices in life is on the boards in front of them, he said.
“All we need them to do is breathe,” Ballard said. “Our goal is to make them think. And then if they can think, then they can think their way out of trouble and make the next move their best move.”
